Reading Body Language

Knowing how to read your dog's body language is an essential skill for a service dog partner. You need to know if your dog is scared, stressed, or excited so you can respond appropriately. Sometimes you have to look for subtle signals and sometimes the signals are pretty obvious- you just have to know what they mean.

Morey and I often walk half a mile to a nearby elementary school where Morey likes to play ball. We use the sidewalk to get there and along our route are several privacy fences that have dogs behind them. We can't see the dogs behind the fences but if they are out in their yards they run over barking as we go by. It can be tough to keep Morey's attention when he is being barked at right next to us by strange dogs.

We go this route often enough that Morey has learned which fences have dogs behind them. As we approach now the hair all along his back will start standing up as we go by. Some days the dogs aren't out but Morey's hair still stands up in anticipation of encountering these dogs behind fences.

Most people think a dog is being aggressive when their hair stands up on their back or neck but it is really more of a sign of arousal. A dog's hair going up could be a sign of aggression but it also could be from excitement or just going on high alert. It's funny to see Morey- usually very calm and laid back- go into such high alert mode. It's also funny to see him rocking a hairstyle similar to a Rhodesian Ridgeback!

This situation is also a good example of classical conditioning- the specific location of that fence has been paired with a barking dog often enough that when Morey sees the fence he responds as if the dog is there- even when it's not!